Used as Sabine County's jail until 1983, the old jail house located on the square of Hemphill offers much history. The building is now known as the Sabine County Jail Museum and Virgie Speights Memorial Library. The facility has been under the direction of the Sabine County Historical Commission since 1987.

Built in 1903 at a cost of $8,800 the jail not only housed Sabine County prisoners, but the facility also held prisoners from other counties that either didn't have a jail or had a full house.

There were two hangings at the jail - the first in 1909. The first hanging was a public event and was held outside the jail even though the jail is outfitted with a hangman's noose and trapdoor inside. The museum houses a piece of rope used in the first hanging.

Old picture of the Sabine County Jail exterior

The second hanging, which was held in 1922, was done inside the jail. This was the only time the hanging rope and the trapdoor were used as hanging was outlawed in 1924. There are only two jails in Texas that had a hanging rope.

The museum also houses many interesting exhibits of Sabine County history and the library in the museum has some very rare books in this collection as well as a good amount of genealogy materials. Click here to see the Old County Jail Museum.

The museum is operated under the auspices of the Sabine County Historical Society and open to the public. Virtually all of the history of Sabine County is represented in the various items in the museum. The attendant happily takes the time to tell you about any little item that sparks your curiosity and gives you the guided tour of the jail cells and gallows, too. Admission is free; you may leave a donation if you wish.

NOTE: Every effort is made to have accurate information, but we do not guarantee the accuracy of any information and you use the information presented here at your own risk.

PRIVACY:
On some pages we use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here. We collect shipping information on purchases from the STORE which is used solely for shipping; we collect some information on various submissions which is used to verify that the submission is made by the person claiming to make it and for no other purpose.

C.O.P.P.A.: We rarely collect information from anyone. The only time we collect information is if you are submitting something. When we do collect such information it is for our own use only in verifying that the submission comes from the person it is supposed to be coming from and this information is not shared with anyone else. We expect all of our submissions to come from people 18 years of age or older.